Former Executive of Willbros Subsidiary Pleads Guilty
to Conspiring to Bribe Foreign Officials in Nigeria and Ecuador

WASHINGTON – Jim Bob Brown, a former executive of a subsidiary of Houston-based
Willbros Group Inc. who worked in Nigeria and South America, has pleaded guilty
to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by conspiring with others
to bribe officials of the governments of Nigeria and Ecuador, the Department of
Justice announced today.

The plea was accepted this afternoon at the federal courthouse in Houston by
Judge Sim Lake of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
The court set a sentencing date of November 30, 2006.

Willbros, a publicly traded company that provides construction, engineering and
other services in the oil and gas industry, conducts international operations
through a subsidiary known as Willbros International Inc. (WII). During his
guilty plea hearing, Brown, 45, admitted that in February 2005, he and another
Nigeria-based WII executive arranged for the payment of approximately $1.5
million in cash in Nigeria as part of a conspiracy to make corrupt payments to,
among others, officials of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (the Nigerian
government-owned oil company) and a joint venture effectively controlled by that
company, in order to obtain and retain gas pipeline construction business in
Nigeria. The payment was part of a larger, multi-million dollar foreign
bribery scheme involving, among others, a former senior Willbros executive
officer, a U.S. national acting as a purported “consultant” to Willbros, and
Nigeria-based employees of a major German engineering, and construction
company. Brown also admitted that, from at least 1996 to early 2005, he and
other mid and senior-level WII executives approved of a scheme in which WII’s
Nigerian operations submitted fictitious invoices for payment by Willbros.
These funds were used, in part, to make corrupt payments to officials of the
Nigerian revenue agencies and courts in order to lower taxes that would
otherwise have been assessed, and to influence favorably litigation in Nigeria
affecting the business of Willbros.

Brown further admitted that, in June 2004, he conspired with the former senior
Willbros executive officer and the “consultant,” in addition to local WII
Ecuador employees, to pay at least $300,000 to officials of PetroEcuador, the
Ecuadorian government oil company, to obtain a gas pipeline rehabilitation
contract and potential future business.

Brown is cooperating with the government’s ongoing investigation as part of his
plea agreement. The maximum sentence for a charge of conspiring to violate the
FCPA is not more than five years in prison and a fine of not more than the
greater of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss.

The case is being prosecuted by Fraud Section Deputy Chief Mark F. Mendelsohn
and Trial Attorney Thomas E. Stevens of the Criminal Division, Department of
Justice. The case continues to be investigated by the Washington Field Office
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.